Friday, February 22, 2013

Current location: Lewisham
11.11pm, Eating cheese. Today was one of those days that was just brilliant. I totally didn't expect it, waking up a bit groggy and tired in the middle of the day. I was content to lie in bed and watch TV until it got dark again but luckily Andy dragged me out of the darkened room and forced me to interact with civilisation.

We rode to Greenwich and had a bit of an explore, and then found the foot tunnel that goes north under the Thames. It was cool! A bit creepy though. Once on the north side of the river, we rode around a park and tried to find a pub to eat a roast in, but all the pubs were a bit scary so we headed south again. The sun was setting and the light was just amazing.

Back in Greenwich, we tried to find a pub that had been recommended to Andy. It was lovely, homely, and the food was SO GOOD. It was only when we left that we realised it actually wasn't the pub we'd been looking for. Ah well, twas a good find (though unfortunately I can't remember the name of it). After stuffing ourselves we were still feeling indulgent so ummed and aahed about a cheese board, eventually making the excellent decision to stop at Sainsbury's on the way home and get our own dreamy board of cheese. Finally home, we cracked out the cheese and chutney and got down to a good game of Scrabble. I won ;)

Current location: Camden
11.11pm, In Koko, dancing! We'd had a crazy busy, fun, awesome day, which started with a yummy post-birthday breakfast and Andy opening lots of cards and presents.

As a birthday present to himself, Andy had bought tickets to go to a football match of his team, Arsenal, against Blackburn Rovers. He'd never seen them play live (neither had I) and the atmosphere when we got to the Emirates stadium was awesome. There were so many excited fans, and the stadium was full of Arsenal memorabilia, photos and stories. Armed with a pint and packet of crisps, we headed into the stands and practised our chants (helped by a very loud, large man behind us).

As the game kicked off, I thought Arsenal were absolutely killing it. I know nothing about football but they just seemed like they had the ball more, had loads more chances at goal (see, I said I know nothing about football), but just couldn't seem to score. Sadly, with about 15 minutes to go, Blackburn Rovers managed to score. The crowd went...silent. Sad times. With an end score of 1-0, it was a sombre crowd leaving the Emirates (Andy among them) but we didn't stay sad for long, as next on our agenda was Rochy and Jdog's house.

When we got there, they plied us with delicious snacks, and we got ready and transformed ourselves from football hooligans to party-goers. A few beers down, we trekked to The Cuban in Camden and met 12 others for a yummy dinner of paella and tapas (and mojitos, obvs).

To end Andy's amazing day of birthday celebrations, we went to Koko to enjoy a rather awesome Mr Scruff DJ set. I think we literally danced for about four hours, only stopping for one person to head to the bar and refill our drinks. I even managed to get a cup of tea at the end – I love Mr Scruff! Koko is such a cool venue too, it's so beautiful and I love all the different levels and balconies. All danced out by 3am, we hopped in a cab and travelled home in style all the way from north-west to south-east London.

Monday, February 18, 2013

Current location: Shoreditch
11.11pm, In The Corner Shop, having a drink and a boogie. Today is ANDY'S BIRTHDAY! (It's also Nick's birthday but alas he is in another continent.) We were both at work all day, then went out separately with work people for drinks before finally meeting at The Corner Shop (which had great wallpaper, see first two pictures) to begin the celebrations that will last all weekend. HB my lovely love.

Current location: Lewisham
11.11pm, Watching Homeland. Not very romantic, admittedly, but we had been out for a delish dinner at Tapatisserie in Honor Oak, and of course spent the whole day thinking and talking about how in love we are. Like any Valentine would. In seriousness, though, Andy is beyond awesome and I know I am a lucky girl. Happy V Day everyone, share the love!

Current location: Port Talbot
11.11pm, Hanging out with my grandma, sisters, cousins, parents, boyfriend, brothers-in-law (my niece and nephews had gone to bed by now). Tonight was my Grandma's 90th birthday party and we all came to South Wales to celebrate. It was such a lovely evening, which topped off a great day. It started with Andy and I driving through snow and rain to get to South Wales, where we went to my auntie's house and drank tea, watched rugby, chatted and ate cake until my sisters and their children arrived. With so many people and so much going on, I felt about nine years old again, when we used to come to Port Talbot every holiday to see our family.

As the afternoon turned into evening, we got our glad rags on and headed to Blancos for the party. I haven't been to many 90th parties before (or any, actually), but what with the bingo, the food, the jokes and most of Monday Club representing, it felt like just how a 90th should be. It was so nice to see lots of family I haven't seen in years, too, and so good to spend soem time making a fuss of my lovely grandma. xx

Current location: Soho
11.11am, Setting up my desk in our new office. Yesterday I left Incisive Media to join Apptitude Media, a new digital media company.

In the words of Apptitude Media itself:

"We publish award-winning magazines on tablet devices, smartphones and in print, and help other creators of print products to make the transition to bespoke, re-imagined digital products.

Our own publications include the British Journal of Photography and Popular Science UK, while our recent projects include the iPad edition of 125 Magazine."

lt's super exciting to be joining a company that has such a buzz about it; everyone is full of ideas and positivity about the future, and I'm looking forward to seeing what happens. And if you want an app creating, you know where to come!

Current location: Soho
11.11am, In a very weird meeting. This morning I worked for Incisive Media, on two magazines: Computeractive and British Journal of Photography. However, at 10am today we had two pretty major announcements:
1. BJP has been bought out and will now be published by Apptitude Media, a new digital-media company
2. Computeractive has been bought by Dennis Publishing

These are both very exciting things to happen, and will undoubtedly be good for both brands. However, I'm going with Apptitude Media, while my Computeractive friends will be going with Dennis. Which meant a very sad day of goodbyes, as the buyouts are effective immediately. By the end of the day, my desk was packed up and my computer moved to our new office (on the fifth floor of the same building!). I'm super excited to be moving into the digital media realm of publishing (though we will still be publishing the beautiful print version of BJP) and also to be taking on new challenges but, for me, the excitement will begin tomorrow.

Today is for looking back on the joy, love and achievement that Incisive Media has bought me over the past two years – the tea I have drunk, the biscuits I have eaten, the magazines I have sent to press, the lessons I have learnt, the promotions I have earned, the nights out, the laughter, the office banter, the five-a-day charts, the sneaky lunchtime wines and, most most most of all, the friends I have made. I am a strong believer that change is almost always good, but today I am allowing myself a little bit of sadness over the goodbyes and nostalgia over the happy memories! Thanks Incisive, you've been bloody amazeballs!!

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Current location: Lewisham
11.11pm, At the Fox and Firkin pub. Tonight is weekly pub quiz night and for the past two weeks, we have come so close to coming in the top five. That's our dream as then our team makes it onto the leaderboard!
Tonight, we had our peak team out in full swing, including superbrain Jack. We were progressing nicely throughout the runds, just managing to stay in the top five, and our excitement was ridiculous.

As Karl the Quizmatser announced the final scores, we had somehow ended up as joint 3rd/4th! It was time for the tiebreaker (Population of Germany, if you're interested). Superbrain Jack, once again, earned his place in the team and managed to come up with the exact answer (81 million, if you're interested)...winning us the third place prize (Quality St, if you're interested!) and finally a place on the leaderboard. Go Crack Foxes!!

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Current location: Lewisham
11.11am. Sleeping, thanks to my late night last night. My only plan for the day was to go to Lewisham and pick up my new glasses, so I did that and then tried them out by watching loads of TV in bed.

Current location: Camberwell
11.11pm, At Kes and Clare's house. They had a cheese and wine party, which involved everyone bringing a cheese and a bottle of wine. What an unbeatable combo. It was such a good night... I love a good house party anyway, so to combine that with cheese, wine, music and lovely people, it was so much fun. There was so much cheese that we were still eating it at 4am (though the wine had run out before that), which led to a very late night and a very lazy Saturday morning. Great hosting, Clare, Kes and housemates!

Current location: Soho
11.11am, Squealing like a girl. My good friend Chloe had just sent us a picture of a hand, which ordinarily would be a weird thing to do. But this hand a beautiful diamond ring on it, courtesy of her now-fiance, Steve.

That evening we went out for a glass of wine to celebrate her exciting engagement news and, as Chloe used to work 'in diamonds' (I can't remember what work, exactly), she told me all about the ring's features... something about brilliant, and something about carats... I didn't really understand but I can confirm, it is VERY sparkly and beautiful. Congrats you gorgeous couple!

Friday, February 1, 2013

Current location: Battersea Park
11.11am, At Latchmere Leisure Centre with Andy, Kate, Ella and Jake. We were taking Ella swimming and, for the first time in his young life, Jake was going swimming too! Ella was uber-excited, as is standard for a lively three-year-old, and immediately ran in, splashing, jumping and being awesome. Jakey was pretty chilled out but seemed to enjoy his first swim! Then he fell asleep for two hours – swimming is tiring! We spent a while in the pool, then went upstairs for lunch and more playing. Being an auntie rocks.